Furnaces and refrigeration units are relatively high maintenance units. It is important to maintain refrigeration and heating units in top condition to save on energy costs, to prolong the life of the unit, and to provide a dependable source of cooled or heated air.
Furnaces commonly need replacement because they are operated over their rated capacity. When a furnace is operating above its rated capacity, the fuel flow into the furnace is great enough to create a flame sufficiently hot to cause damage to the interior parts including the burner. Furthermore, since furnaces are commonly rated in terms of energy rate such as btu's per hour, and not fuel flow rate in cubic feet of gas, it is tedious to manually perform the equation for converting the fuel flow to consuming energy rate (referred to as the firing rate) of the unit.
Because service people who service furnaces also service refrigeration units, they also commonly carry charts that convert refrigerant pressure to a refrigerant temperature based upon the particular refrigerant and conversely convert refrigerant temperature to a refrigerant pressure. Additional charts are also used to find relative humidity based upon dry bulb and wet bulb temperatures. These charts are established from well known equations.
What is needed is a calculator apparatus that can eliminate the need for various charts. It is desirable to have a calculator apparatus that can easily calculate the conversion equations and convert fuel flow into an energy rate based upon the movement of an energy dial such that a single operator can time fuel flow and calculate the energy rate of consumption from the timed fuel flow. Furthermore, it is desired to have a calculator that converts line pressure of refrigerant into temperature and temperature into a pressure within the refrigerant line. Furthermore, it is also desirable to have the calculator able to calculate relative humidity based upon dry bulb and wet bulb temperature inputs.